1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotating object such as a wheel, wheel cover, or hub cap.
2. Discussion of Related Art
This invention incorporates portions of the specification of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/444,064 filed May 18, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,651, which discloses various illuminated flying objects. During development of the invention described in the copending application, it became apparent that the many of the principles involved in the illumination of the types of flying objects described therein, and in particular the flying disc embodiment, could also be applied to rotating objects such as wheels and wheel covers.
It is known to add reflectors to the wheels of bicycles, motorcycles, and other vehicles for the purpose of making the vehicles more visible to motorists. The movement of the wheels causes the reflectors to rotate, thereby increasing the likelihood that the reflectors will be noticed, in contrast to more stationary reflectors or lights positioned elsewhere on the vehicle. However, such reflectors have the disadvantage that they are only visible over a narrow range of incident light. If the reflectors are not in the path of a headlight or other light source, and if the observer is not in the path of the reflected light, then the reflector will not be noticed.
One solution to this problem would be to replace the reflectors by conventional lighting arrangements, such as incandescent lights. However, incandescent lighting arrangements is impractical for use on most type of wheels or other rotating objects because of the size of incandescent light bulbs (minimum 8 mm diameter and 10 mm length), which on a wheel could interfere with rotation of the wheel, because of the fragility and high power requirements of incandescent lights, and because of high power requirements and the necessity of providing some type of commutating arrangement if the power supply cannot be placed on the wheel.
While LEDs are smaller and less fragile than incandescent lights, size both LEDs (minimum 3 mm diameter and 10 mm length, with a surface mounting height of 15 mm) is still a problem, as are the narrow viewing angle (at most 45.degree.), lack of brightness (red, green, and yellow), and limited color choices of LEDs (red LEDs are brighter, but can confuse traffic and are prohibited in many jurisdictions. Also, LED-based lighting arrangements lack flexibility, may require a supporting circuit board which adds to the cost of the arrangement, and cannot be decorated by adding silk-screened designs or used in area lighting. Furthermore, even though LEDs are not easily broken, safety problems are not eliminated by using LEDs since the hardness of the LEDs can itself present a hazard to the user in case of impact, and the soldering points necessary to connect the LEDs to a supporting circuit board or wiring are relatively fragile and likely to fail even if the LED itself is not broken, unless protected by an expensive epoxy connection at each soldering point. Finally, although LEDs can be controlled by solid state trigger circuitry using motion sensors, the conventional motion sensor based switching systems used in such lighting arrangements are less than optimal in both size and complexity.
Paradoxically, even though LEDs have the problem of insufficient brightness, they also have the problem that the temperature of the available colors is such that the LEDs are visible under fairly bright background lighting conditions. It is actually preferable that a lighting arrangement for a wheel object not be visible at light levels above 10,000 lux, to prevent drivers in lighted urban areas from being confused by all of the rotating lighted objects. Furthermore, the color choice should be sufficient to prevent confusion with emergency signs, brake lights, and so forth. As a result, the color temperatures available for LEDs are generally unsuitable for the uses contemplated by the present invention. Instead, neon color-temperatures, and in particular green, blue, pink, amber, and white are best suited for the purpose of illuminated wheel, and will meet safety requirements even of jurisdictions in which red is prohibited except for emergency warnings.
In view of these problems, the Inventor has discovered that the most suitable lighting elements for use on rotating objects such as bicycle wheels, as well as other types of wheels, wheel covers, hub caps, and the like, are electro-luminescent (EL) or photo-luminescent (PL) strips, hereinafter referred to as "super-thin" lighting elements, which have none of the disadvantages of incandescent and LED based lighting arrangements. The size, flexibility, and low power consumption of these types of "super-thin" (preferably less than 3 mm thickness) makes them ideal for the applications described below. Not only can super-thin lighting arrangements based on EL or PL technology be used for illuminating rotating objects such as wheels, but such lighting arrangements can be made to exhibit a variety of special effects and come in a variety of bright colors.
While EL and PL strips or panels have been known for many years, however, and despite the advantages of such lighting elements in comparison with conventional incandescent and LED-based lighting arrangements, the use of these lighting elements is far from obvious. The Inventor has been refining uses for super-thin lighting elements for some time, and has found that each application takes special techniques which would not have been apparent to the ordinary artisan, such as the use of a specially designed spring-based motion sensitive switch for achieving motion based special effects, and as a result no printed publication or patent known to the Inventor even remotely suggests the use of super-thin lighting elements in a rotating object of the type with which the present invention is concerned.